For the second game in a row, England found a way. Having been battered and beaten by a relentless Scotland, Steve Borthwick’s side somehow stayed in the contest, edged into the lead and rode their luck to hold on to the most dramatic of 16-15 wins and finally end their half-decade of Calcutta Cup woe.
There was some irony to the fact that it was England’s tormentor-in-chief from the recent past, Finn Russell, who, having missed two earlier kicks, saw his touchline conversion at the death drift agonisingly wide to leave the visitors one paltry point short in the final reckoning. So often the match-winner, he took on a more heartbreaking role to leave the men in white exhausted but celebrating the end of an unwanted streak.
